You may think that Mark Zuckerberg is a young CEO, but these entrepreneurs take the cake when it comes to success and youth. These kids all had extraordinary ideas and unlike their peers they acted on them. Find out how they made it big at such a young age!
Business Pundit shares…
Adam Horowitz
The origins Adam Horowitz’s miniature financial empire came about in a bad way, but he has since made good. He, along with fellow classmates, launched a distressingly popular nasty gossip blog when he was 15. Needless to say, the parents shut it down right quick.
Still, the experience taught Horowitz about the potential in internet marketing. So he started his own site, Urban Stomp, which hosted music and listed the locations of parties in his local area (he lived in the Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles). To pull in cash, he soldclothing through affiliate sites.
Horowitz was unprepared for how successful it would be. His first listing (an accidental posting to the home of an 80-year old neighbor) drew over 700 rowdy teens. Ouch. But what started out as an awkward foray into the world of digital business has since been turned around.
Horowitz now teaches courses to 15+ year olds on how to make money online, and he runs mobile marketing sites like ‘Mobile Monopoly,’ and ‘Cell Phone Treasure,’ which have both earned him over $100,000. Additionally, he has another one that is up and coming, ‘Dude, I Hate My Job!’
What does this budding young entrepreneur do in his spare time? He tools around in his 2010 Audi A5 and playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 on his 360. Moral of the story: Not all video gamers are shiftless slackers. And, whether or not you agree with internet marketing affiliate-based programs, you have to give the kid props for starting this up on his own.
Leanna Archer
In many places, young people can’t even start work until they hit the age of 16–child labor laws makes sure of that. And even if we don’t want to go back to the days of Dickensian-inspired ‘A working child is a happy child,’ we certainly can’t discount young ladies like the 13-year old Leanna Archer.
So what did this tiny Trump do? Why, no less than started her very own hair care empire from her parents’ basement.
People had begun to ask Leanna what she put in her luxurious locks. It was, in fact, a pomade made by her grandmother. She told them that it was her grandma’s secret recipe, but then she got the wild idea to market this to people she knew.
Her parents weren’t so hot on the idea, but after her grandma whipped up a batch of the stuff and Leanna stuck some in baby food jars to give to her classmates and ostensibly their parents, the money began rolling in. She had already researched the particulars on obtaining a business license and about getting a Tax ID. So impressed were her folks was they all but said, ‘Where do we sign up?’ And that’s how Leanna’s Hair came to be.
Angelo Sotira
For lovers of art, whatever form it takes, be it in words, the stroke of a brush, the strike of a chord, the click of a camera shutter, or the click of a mouse, few can argue the wild success of deviantArt.
Begun in 2000 by Angelo Sotira (who was 18 at the time) and a few others, dA is a monstrously popular site where users can set up an account to show off their work, sell prints of their work, buy sponsored merchandise, view others’ work, as well as comment on others’ work. As of 2010, 14.5 million ‘deviants’ call the site home, with over 100 million submissions (an average of 140,000 a day).
Despite its success, deviantArt had its share of troubles. One of the founders, Scott Jarkoff, was let go, and there was a whole legal mess between Angelo and the third founder. Supposedly Angelo was going to use dA’s own money to pay for legal costs.
However it all ends up, we’d like to think that deviantArt is here to stay. Get your act together boy. You’ve got lots of folks who want to continue making and showing off the goods!
Cameron Johnson
While this millionaire he didn’t invent Beanie Babies, they certainly got him off to a good start. Cameron Johson started his first business at the age of nine. At age 12, he sold his sister’s Beanie Babies on the internet for a tidy profit of $50,000. (We wonder, did she know? Little girls are rather possessive about their stuffed cute things. The greenbacks were probably enough to sway her from murdering her brother for selling what was probably a cherished collection.)
Since then, he has became (at 15) the youngest American to be elected to a Tokyo board of directors. Johnson even released a book about it, called 15-Year Old CEO, which peaked at #4 on the Japanese best seller list.
With his diverse knowledge and mad marketing skills, this young entrepreneur has enjoyed appearances on notable shows including Oprah Winfrey, MSNBC, CNBC, as well as articles in the Washington Post and the New York Times. One thing is for certain, the young Johnson is one businessman to keep your eyes on.
Fraser Doherty
When you think of making millions, you probably don’t think about jam, Smuckers or Welches notwithstanding. But one Scottish youth, Fraser Doherty, made his millions off just that.
Doherty began making jam from fruit and fruit juice, based on his grandma’s recipe, out of his parents’ kitchen at the tender age of 15. He mostly sold to friends and fellow churchgoers, but demand quickly spiked, outstripping his ability to produce.
Since starting, Doherty’s jam has spread to virtually every grocery chain in the UK and Ireland, including the biggest UK retailer of them all, Sainsbury. His product, SuperJam, comes in a wide array of unique flavors, including blueberry & blackcurrant and rhubarb & ginger.
This religious lad isn’t even about the money. Sure, the profits are as sweet as the jam, but he loves making the stuff so much that that’s all he focuses on. Still, it must be nice having the dough roll in doing something you love.
Juliette Brindak
When it comes to empowering little girls and teaching them about what it means to be a smart, savvy, successful adult, role models aren’t always in abundance. Those that are don’t always work out as planned.
Take Barbie, for instance. Sure Mattel’s behemoth started with the best of intentions, but it led to stereotypes and unrealistic expectations about a woman’s life and appearance.
Juliette Brindak wanted to do something more, something that could not be misconstrued and would provide a positive influence. Ergo, you have her site, Miss O and Friends. She first conceived of the site at age 10. Now, at 19, she and her site are worth about $15 million.
For parents, the site, which hosts a club called Miss O Moms, offers informative and engaging information about children and families. For young ladies, Miss O provides a safe place for them to explore what it means to be a young woman, hang out in a virtual environment with friends and schoolmates and develop meaningful and fun relationships.
Sites like Facebook don’t really cut it, because you have to at least be 13, and little girls are, if nothing else, curious and creatures, just like their icky boy counterparts. What better place than MissOandFriends to figure out who they are?
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